Crafting Memories
by Mr Razushi
Summary: Jaune Arc wasn't a man most would want to associate with, not because he was lacking in morals, virtues or a healthy sense of self. Rather it was the consequences one would have to endure with him. The consequence of the universe despising him in a world where the world itself plays a game. The consequence of a world willing to do anything to get rid of him.


**Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing about these franchises I mention, although it would be pretty cool.**

* * *

_Hast thou forsaken thy?_

* * *

The story of Jaune Arc is a tale that parents told their children to fear like the monster hiding under your bed like a 5-week old mouldy nacho chip.

Frankly, Jaune wasn't a boogyman, far from it! he wasn't something to be scared of because of his martial prowess nor his deeds. He didn't pillage villages like bandit tribes, he didn't do drugs or anything that bad like robbery, in all fairness he was an upstanding citizen, he went to school, made friends, and in fact nearly graduated!

No. he wasn't feared because of what he did, he was feared because the universe despised his very existence and that was a very bad thing and in a reality where the world itself played like a game, the universe itself could give the middle finger to Jaune. Not only painting an assassination target upon him and everyone around but announcing it around the whole world. How could anyone accept him with that kind of consequence? How could anyone? After all, when the universe can and will turn your world upside down, what can one do? Ring on destiny's bell and change her date with fate?

* * *

The tale begins on a planet called Remnant, there existed humanity, it lived through its caveman days and slowly developed some form of civilisation, but located outside of civilisation and its walls were beasts ready to phone humanity's extinction number.

Grimm, humanity called them.

Heavily muscled heaving, black and white monsters that exist for no other purpose than to rip and tear human civilisations to the ground and feed on negative emotions.

Eventually, a single Grimm would stray too close towards humanity to feed on elusive emotions like despair to grow and fester like rats on a ship, and like thousands of its brethren preying on humanity to grow, that one Grimm would die alone, impaled by natural or artificial defences, but the Grimm who watched in the background? they would adapt to issues like weapons, growing white bone plates for protection some would even evolve around the environment like a volcano's and take advantage of its heat while others would grow tusks.

Grimm took the form of many animals, all with traits similar to real animals. You have Grimm wolves called Beowolves hunting in packs, Nevermores flying in flocks and bears-like Grimm called Ursa, you have scorpions the size of a small kitchen called deathstalkers and dragons the size of mountains. Each Grimm never tiring, hunting humans until it died and disappeared into glossy vapour.

Throughout it all, humanity has survived albeit dying slowly. Enduring the hardships of the world for millennia they slowly developed tools and refined them, eventually a revolution sparked, humanity, having been on the decline for the longest time could finally push back for once and push they did, they discovered Dust, not the regular old dust you find in an unswept room where you last entered more than a few years ago, but rather a new energy source, quite literally crystallized power.

It came in all kinds of varieties, fire, water, wind, earth, gravity, electricity and more, thus humanity developed their kingdoms around Dust. Trusting in its power to keep them safe and secure, trades bloomed, people could live in peace for some time. Naturally, they were overrun but eventually, technology developed. Technology like computers and radios were invented, which gave way to compact, collapsable scrolls which could act as a mobile device and the computer.

Somewhere on Remnant was a school was called Beacon Academy, a Hunter Academy that along with three other prestigious schools located worldwide take in innocent teens and forged them into Hunters: defenders of humanity, defeaters of Grimm and upholders of justice.

Hunter's were essentially superpowered police/military, boasting a slowly regenerating shield called 'Aura' and a special power 'Semblance' specific to the owner as well as an improvement in everything besides mental capabilities. These Hunters gain these abilities by essentially removing the boundaries that kept their souls inside their mortal coil.

The population rose and rose, climbing up towards a peak that less than a hundred years ago would have been considered impossible, especially since they just went into the Great Colour War, a war about freedom of creativity and speech, sparking a trend of naming people after colours.

When the population reached the millions the universe finally awoke, having spent enough time sleeping using the form of a shattered and pale moon.

The moon, a fractured natural satellite started to coalesce together into a single smooth sphere, a phenomenon unseen before in humanities faint few decades of history or folklore.

After the moon became whole again the moon opened up around noon and revealed an eye that bulged with red hatred, gazing around at everyone with pure malice and promising pain.

Then it shut closed. It left the residents of Remnant to wonder if there was a mass hallucination, however, when the moon opened the very next day at noon again it pulsed blue waves that washed over the world.

Not even a few minutes later, one by one, people started to fall to their knees clutching their heads, screaming in pain and agony, begging for something to stop the pain. It didn't stop for the next few hours and when the last person fell to their knees, surrounded by family and friends the pain stopped for everyone simultaneously, then the world exploded into white supernovas.

* * *

_In the dormitories of Beacon, a boy called Jaune Arc was the first out of his team to fall to his knees, his team only started to rush towards him to check what was going on, but not before their own knees emitted thuds from the floor. Jaune was also the first to recover from the pain in a sense that he could move and think without much pain, as he looked up and towards his team with worried glances lying next to him in on the carpeted. He cared for his team and thus he started to move them towards their respective beds and making sure they didn't pull a muscle or hit their heads on the floor too hard, Oum knows he did._

_After making sure they were ok and comfortable in their beds, Jaune went outside and started to stroll around the dormitory, checking up on people whether they were ok or not, knocking on each and every door he could possibly knock, he made sure that people that fell down had a rest in the infirmary in the hallway where put against the walls, and left glasses of water in front of doors which wouldn't open, sometimes he would find an empty room or a room with three to four members all crumpled together in a mishmash of clothes and flesh, sometimes even revealing a pair or trio unclothed presumably screwing eachother senseless before the pain hit or getting ready to take a shower, Jaune simple just placed a glass of water or four on countertops for them to drink when they woke before leaving the room with burning cheeks. _

_By the time he returned to his dorm Pyrrha was starting to wake, while Nora and Ren were still knocked out... or sleeping, somehow Nora had snuck over into Ren's bed. "Water?" Jaune motioned to Pyrrha with a glass of water in his hand, he had been meaning to drink but didn't feel the urge to, best not to tell her that though. _

_"Thanks," Pyrrha muttered while grasping her head, "What caused that pain?" Pyrrha asked, trying to move off her bed to move around, but not before staggering against the wall, "How are you moving like there's no issue? I'm jealous" Pyrrha joked._

_"Only my experience with headaches caused by 7 sisters," Jaune replied before turning his head sideways to face Nora and Ren who was starting to move and groan in the sensation of having their brains fried with pain. _

_'Ren?" Nora asked curiously._

_"Yes?" Ren answered dully like someone expecting to be tortured._

_"Pancakes?" Nora asked, her voice cracking halfway through._

_"Yes." Ren said, "After this pain goes away in an hour or two."_

_"Alrighty, Renny." Nora instantly cheered up and teleported back into her bed, her head hitting the pillow with a resounding thud._

* * *

It was a raining, moonless night in Atlas, a continent that has too much snow to even consider living in for the rest of his life however long it may last.

Near the base of the snowy hill with groves of trees lined the outside hiding the small campfire's light. Inside a small muddy burrow that Jaune dug out himself a stolen chipped claymore lay upon the wall, it was to replace Crocea Mors, his trusty hand-me-down blade that went through the Great Colour War with nothing but a dent had finally broken in his hands and he had needed a replacement.

The same went for his armour, the armour he wore consistent mainly of half-broken metal sheets and rusted scraps all melded together with the help of sparse fire dust and strenuous application of duct tape, they didn't do as well as his old armour but it worked well enough for him to tank a Beringal blow or twenty "Bloody giant ape." Jaune could only mutter, wanting to conserve heat.

Jaune was a outlaw now, no longer did he have his team at his back, the only relic of that time that was still with him was a Pete's hoodie was hung near a bonfire, drying out from the rain while Jaune himself was hugging a blanket woven from grass, trying to spell away from the Atlas's snowy coldness through sheer power of will and desperately failing. It didn't help it was winter and there was an obscene amount of snow.

/||\

==[-XXX-]==

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Outside Jaune's burrow was a team of four huntsmen, sent to eradicate the recent Grimm threat located near a rather large town in Atlas, when they encountered Jaune by chance, sitting lonely around a small bonfire surrounded by only himself, trying to live the current winter.

That didn't mean he would get mercy from him, Ever since the Moon's Eye had enlightened them to the workings of the universe... Well, it didn't take them much to figure out the world had turned into something resembling a game. Everyone had levels, titles and classes, and there was a rather fetching prize given out by the Moon's Eye that just required the person know as wanted Jaune Arc dead, wouldn't harm society that much anyway, he was an outlaw after all.

No one missed those kinds of people if they occasionally go _missing_.

The huntsmen tiptoed towards him, first inspecting the surroundings for traps, weaponry, poison, anything, it would make sense since so many would seek to take his life for the plentiful bounty upon his head. Luckily it appeared that the universe was smiling upon them, guiding them with a hand upon their backs even.

Jaune was asleep, tired from exploring the mountainside for either a cave or for soft enough ground to dig a cave or burrow.

As the huntsmen drew closer and closer, their unease grew, it was too easy to sneak up so close. Where was the man that had fought off and slain full teams of huntsmen?

Finally, they were close enough to attack, and they leapt together as one, intent on killing Jaune in a single, clean, synced attack.

That was when Jaune finally woke up from his slumber, his baby blue eyes glimmered with a resigned acceptance of his fate, it was too late to take up his sword or armour not to mention that he didn't have enough time or any fire dust left to couldn't repair his sword or armour. So for the first time, he was caught with not just his pants down, but his dick out and near the finish line.

It had been a long two years since his life was flipped on his head by the damned moon god and in that time he had seen and discovered enough to finally rest. He had been running for a long time for his admittedly short life and that had given him lots of time to think about his future, While he regretted not being able to have a family, he found that he truly didn't mind, they would have been sentenced like him.

So Jaune didn't put up any resistance, less pain when he finally died. Three swords and a spear were approaching him, the swords slashing towards his chest, presumably aiming to split open his guts, the spear angled for his neck at an awkward angle, glancing off his collar bone and instead aiming down a bit, the spear didn't collide with the ribs but it did thoroughly rip through his flesh, in fact, he could still feel his heart beating against the wall, squashed between his back and being held there by the spear and the fact it was ripped out of its rightful place.

Looking down Jaune could see scarlet red and shiny steel dancing in a complicated dance inside his chest, faintly noting his smaller intestine and liver falling out.

He could faintly feel a wriggling motion behind his back,a swordsman must have had just cut a rather large wound that ran jaggedly from the middle of his torso to just underneath the shoulder, the wound itself raining blood as though the sky itself wept, his shoulder burnt like lava, bleeding enough to cover the floor with enough blood to make it slick within a few dozen seconds..

The other two swordsmen that attacked as well started to attack again, slicing through his flesh and bones the swords slashed downwards impossibly sharp through his flesh.

The spear with his heart still impaled on it finally started to move after the other three swords were no longer cutting more ravines in his body, the spear that held his body still, started to angle upwards with his body still attached towards the end.

Deliriously Jaune thought that this might have what being crucified felt like.

While being lifted up into the air. He could feel the metal shaft faintly hooking just between his lungs and spine, going through his collar bone and touching his jugular, ready to pierce his mouth and brain in a single move at a moments notice.

He knew he was going to die, he lost to much blood to even consider the possibility to recover, and so he closed his eyes expecting some dark being to greet him and take him to hell for whatever sins he committed.

Jaune, tired beyond possible belief opened his eyes once more, to peer and spit upon his cursed title, and he cursed it one last time before finally letting go of his hold on life.

After all, it was the title that changed his life.

**[Jaune Arc]**

**The Corrupting Void  
**

The title was the very reasons Jaune Arc, never made past his early years.

The very reason why Jaune Arc was _**hated.**_


End file.
